Crescendos
by luvkatnisseverdeen
Summary: What happens after Mockingjay when President Paylor suddenly dies a mysterious death and the new President, President Galilee wants to continue a new version of the Games? What happens when Katniss and Peeta's daughter, Calarose gets chosen at the reaping? What will they do to prevent their daughter from having to experience the only thing in life that still haunts them both?
1. Chapter 1

_**I hope you like this! I am having a great time writing it. :P**_

_**I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING! SUZANNE COLLINS DOES! **_

I cringe slightly as my mother pulls the braid tighter to my head and secures it in place with an overused, stretched out rubber band. My thick, dark hair is now contained as it cascades down my right shoulder in which looks like a very complicated and elaborate twist. My mother has always been good with these intricate plaits, which she shows every day in her own hair.  
She hands me an old cracked mirror that she must have had since she was my age. "It's beautiful!" I tell her. As I say this, I see her great grey eyes transform into almost pure happiness, that even brings a smile to her face, but then it soon fades away and her eyes become the evil-looking dark color that makes me shiver. They have looked this way since one day, two weeks ago when the president visited our house. You would believe that it would be a privilege to have the ruler of Panem in your house, but I could tell by the voices the crescendoed through the house that it was in fact not that, but the complete opposite.

A light snow had begun to fall on my walk home from school, but even through the precipitation falling from the sky, I could see the shiny black, snow frosted car that sat parked in front of our house in Victor's Village. A group of neighbors had gathered on Greasy Sae's property across the street, and even from where I was, I could hear them all talking in worried, hushed whispers. Whose car was that? Why were they at my house? To give myself time to think about things, I checked the mailbox that had recently been placed in out front yard. There was only one letter, addressed to my mother inside the green box that my father had painted. I looked at the return address. The first thing I saw was DISTRICT 2 stamped in bold blue ink. Gale Hawthorne. Gale! My mother had told me a handful of her childhood memories, and almost every single one included Gale. Sometimes I find myself wondering if my mother was so fond of Gale, why she didn't just marry him and not my father. I had never met the legendary Gale, of course. The trains that once served as transportation to the other districts during the Games are rarely used now, and when they are, the old freights just import goods from around Panem and export the coal that is still currently mined locally.

I walked up to the front door and almost forgot about the mysterious black car and muted voices of the neighbors, too focused on the letter, I guess. I cautiously and slowly opened the door, and for once, it meandered open without letting out a squeak in protest. I must have inherited my mother's gracefulness, because my feet didn't make a sound as I made my way to back of the house, where the study to the door was left a jar. Shouts emerged from the narrow crack where the door had been left slightly open.

"This is absolutely ridiculous, Galilee!" A woman's voice protested, my mothers. Galilee. I knew of only one, President Galilee. She didn't mean that though, did she? Oh no. Suddenly everything added up, the extravagant black car outside our house, the name Galilee. It WAS the president herself.

Senmet Galilee had been our president for three weeks now. She had been elected after the mysterious death of our current ruler, President Paylor. They had told us how she died, but I knew it was a lie as much as the people who made it up did. Who in the Capitol would die of sickness? They had all of the medicines that a person might ever need in their life, plus real doctors that had been trained to treat even the sickest of people. But then again, why would you tell the whole country the real reason? It wouldn't benefit anyone; it would probably just result in a bunch of paranoid and freaked citizens.

President Galilee seemed like a nobody. When they first appointed her, I had never heard of her. She was not a mayor of another district. My parents, who hadn't heard of her either, speculated that Senmet was one of the top-rated Peacekeepers in the Capitol, one that kept the wildly clothed and mannered natives in order.

I dropped the envelope in surprise. The voice stopped now, but I don't see how they could have heard something as light as a piece of paper fall to the floor. I listened and light footsteps approached the door slowly. Before I could run away, a grey eye looked at me through the crack in the door and I gasped as it is jerked open.

"Calarose Mellark!" My mother yelled, "You should known not to listen to people's private conversations! I thought we had raised you better than that!" She continued, scowling, "How much did you hear?" I had never seen my mother as mad as she was then. When I didn't respond to her, she repeated the question.

"Only a couple of seconds, I swear!" I finally manage.

"Katniss, she is just a kid," a voice said from inside the study. Haymitch, definitely. I could tell by the slurred words. I heard louder footsteps and my father appeared next to my mother and put his hands on her shoulders. She suddenly relaxed and her expression softened a little. Then she saw the letter on the ground, and she picked it up, looking as pale as the white roses that she hates for some unknown reason.

"Calarose, why don't you go and buy yourself something," my father said while pressing three golden coins with the Capitol seal on them into my hand. I nodded my head. "Pick up Aden from Posy's when you're done." I looked into his calm blue eyes and shook my head again and turned to retreat out the front door before I could comprehend what had just happened.

_**Tell me what you think about it by reviewing if you could. :) Thx so much for reading this story!  
~luvkatnisseverdeen**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoy my writing. **_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games, although I TOTALLY wished i did. The ending would have been soooo much different. ;)**_

I had already made it to the merchant section of District 12 when I realized something; my father pretty much had bribed me to get out of the house, and I had overlooked this detail because the temptation to buy myself something was too strong. After I thought it over, I realized how selfish it was of me. I looked at the three coins that father gave me.

At school, we learned about the history of Panem, including the most recent and interesting part about District 12's last tributes, Katniss Everdeen, my mother, and Peeta Mellark, my father, and how they even changed the rules for my parents, the "star-crossed lovers of District 12." We also learned about the rebellion that happened twenty-seven years ago. I had seen pictures of them, my father and my mother in the textbooks. My mother, in the hideous Capitol attire that would make any other person look like a clown but made her look so attractive. I could see why my father fell for her. She was absolutely striking. I was also educated about how we are the wealthiest family in the District, even richer than the mayor! That surprised me, especially because my mother refused to wear any expensive, Capitol-like clothing that most of the shops sported for the whole year. When my mother goes to the Meadow to "collect her thoughts" as she calls it, she still wears the tattered boots that she has owned since she was my age at least. It seems every time she slips the supple leather onto her feet, a new hole opens up by her toes, which she tries her hardest to mend.

It was harder to learn about my father, though, having to read about the more than one time that he tried to kill my mother because of the false memories that the Capitol had made him think were true. And yet, it's hard to think that anyone would stay with a person who had been programmed to kill them.

Aden hadn't learned about this yet, and he wouldn't for a couple of years, at least. At the house, my parents made it pretty clear for me not to bring any of it up, them wanting him to live all of his childhood life without knowing about our family history. I think it's hard for my father to think of his past, where he begged my mother to leave him because he was too worried about killing her.

I have only witnessed one of father's outbreaks once, when mother was still pregnant with Aden. I was little, very little, maybe seven or eight. I remember that scary, distant look in my father's bright blue eyes, the way he snarled at my mother and called her a "mutt." I remember watching from the top of the stairs, too horrified to even let them know I was watching. Instead I watched my mother somehow soothe him. After that, he held her close and kept repeating, "I'm sorry Katniss," while stroking her hair.

I decided not to purchase anything that day, and that I was going to wait and spend it when I really wanted something. I headed to Posy's to pick up Aden.

Mother's eyes had been that way ever since, with no happiness to bring them back to at least the dull grey that they once were. Nor my father or mother has been the same since that visit. I can still hear their shouts from late one night, the shouts that sent Aden crying into my room, where I let him stay while I rubbed his back to ease his sobs, and told him that everything was going to be okay.

Today is an important day. President Galilee is making a very critical announcement that everyone must attend. What could be so big that we had to travel to the square to watch a big screen, I don't know, but I have a feeling that it has something to do about the President's visit, earlier this month.

My mother has made me dress up in a skirt that has been tucked inside her closet since her days a victor, or so she tells me. The fabric is almost unbearable, made of layer and layers of scratchy fabric which my mother calls tulle. I can't see how she could stand it, wearing this itchy thing for hours at a time.

Aden bolts down the stair, wearing his normal "special occasion" get up: tawny colored pants and a pale blue shirt, which he worn maybe once or twice in the past two years. His shirt was tucked in, but has become un-tucked in the front in his rampage down the stairs. "Why do I have to wear this?" he asks mother in a confused voice. She gets down on her knees and fixes his shirt, and then looks into his eyes, "Because I say you have to," she says. Aden wrinkles his nose in disgust, "But I don't like it!"

"I know you don't," She says, now straightening his tiny collar. My father walks down the stair wearing a fresh white shirt and beige pants. He looks at mother and she shakes her head, "Let's go."

_**How was that? Did you like it? Plz tell me what you thought in the comments. All you have to do is write, good story, awesome story, horrible story (hopefully no one puts that lol) or something like that. Thx again!**  
**~luvkatnisseverdeen**  
_


	3. Chapter 3

**_Hopefully you are liking my story!  
I DO NOT OWN THE HUNGER GAMES! SUZANNE COLLINS DOES! _**

The walk to the square is extremely unpleasant, or well, at least for me. The wispy layers of the tulle rub against my legs in a manner that I am sure will leave an irritated red rash later. I actually sigh in relief every time there is a small breeze that lifts the skirt from my legs. Oh how I wish I was Aden, who is being carried by mother.

We reach the square after fifteen minutes of walking, where a group of people all stand together in a tight cluster. Everybody looks at as when we arrive, and when we get closer, I can see Posy and her siblings, Vick and Rory. Hazelle, their aged mother stands next to them, smiling as we approach.

"Katniss, do you know what's happening?" Hazelle asks my mother, who shakes her head and tells her she has no idea. In this movement, Aden looks up from my mother's shoulder, where he must have fallen asleep on the walk here.

"But mother, what about-" I am cut off as my father slaps his hand over my mouth and looks at me with a disapproving look while shaking his head slightly.

"Peeta, there is no use silencing the girl, and Katniss, there is no reason to lie. We all know about that visit that you had from Galilee." My mother's mouth opens and shock and my father removes his hand from my mouth.

"What do you know?" Is all my mother asks.

"Only that you had a visit. But I am not the only person who knows about it, most of the District does. You could hear and smell that car from miles away. So, Katniss, what do _you_ know?" Hazelle responds mischievously.

My mother snaps her mouth shut, "That it none of your concern, at least not yet. You will find out soon enough," she says. Then she turns on her heels and walks away, Aden who looks half asleep in her arms. My father presses his hand to my back and I follow her into the slowly growing crowd.

«««

Thirty minutes later, everyone has gathered in the square, and the big screen has flickered on the reveal the Capitol seal while the anthem plays. Suddenly, a live view of President Galilee is projected onto the screen. She is being shown to all of Panem right now.

"Hello, citizens of Panem. I have a new law that has just been created and voted on by the residents of the Capitol." Already I can see that this "new law" won't be fair at all if just the Capitol voted on it. They seem to have messed up heads and believe different than everyone in the Districts.

"It has been many years since our last Hunger Games, and the tributes, Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen emerged victorious and changed from tributes of the Games to victors of the 74th Hunger Games. I have a different viewpoint than your previous President, and I feel as though I need to prevent unruly behavior that has been shown in the Districts before, and I have a wonderful idea of how to enforce this discipline.

"A new and majorly improved version of The Hunger games will be played every year." She pauses, and during the silence, choruses of gasps ripple through the throng. I see one mother pull her three young children close to her. It seems as if everyone's eyes are focused on my family now. While I stare right back at the wandering eyes, my mother and father look straight forward at the screen.

"The rules of these Hunger Games have been decided by the mayors of Panem and myself that we will have a "District Hunger Games," as we like to call it. Individuals will be selected as before and will face their own district partner, and the winner of that round will play against the two chosen children of a district whose strength added together is equal to or closest to the first winner." The President keeps explaining the new version of the Games. My mother apparently can't take listening to her, because she hand my father Aden and disappears into the crowd somewhere.

"Where does she think she can go?" I ask my father, in a voice that's barely audible. I look for my mother and spot her easily although the heads behind me. She didn't even make it to the middle of the square before a Peacekeeper grabs her arm. My mother is now arguing the Peacekeeper, whose crisp white uniform is freshly washed and ironed. Now another Peacekeeper has multiplied by on my mother's side. My father follows my gaze and I hear him sigh faintly.  
"I'll be back. Stay right here," he says, giving me Aden and heading in the direction of my mother. President Galilee is still droning on about the rules and conditions of the new Games, and frankly, she is boring me to death. I would rather watch what's happening with my mother, so I turn around and trail after my father with Aden resting on my hip.

I have only taken a couple of steps when someone pulls me back. It's Posy, and flanking her are Vick and Rory.

"What on Earth are you doing, Calarose? Are you mad? You don't want to be included in that situation!" Her expression is a mixture of disbelief in my actions and question.

"Yes, I do," I say, forcing Aden into her hands as I recoil farther into the sea of people.

_**Did you like it? Tell me any comments are advice you have in the comments below. :)**_

_**Happy writing and may the odds be ever in your favor!  
~luvkatnisseverdeen**_


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